Top 5 Trends from Mobile World Congress 2012

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Every year in February, the
brightest minds of the wireless industry meet in Barcelona to take
part in the Mobile World Congress.

This year was no exception, as more than 60,000 attendees
converged to the city of Gaudi last week, and - mixing business
with pleasure - enjoyed some of the finest cuisines of the world in
restaurants and tapas bars across town. This brings us to the title
of this article: Mobile Tapas from Barcelona or the Top 5 Trends
from Mobile World Congress 2012.

Mobile Tapa #1: the War of Ecosystems

While nearly every major device maker launched Android phones
and tablets, Google’s own Android mothership landed once more in
Hall 8 and released little green robots that mushroomed on
visitors’ jackets and lanyards, popped up at every booth, and
distributed all kinds of green sweet treats, including much coveted
Ice Cream Sandwiches.

But Android is no longer the undisputed king of this jungle. In
fact, Microsoft launched a general assault, with new Windows Phone
8 announcements coming from several major brands, not the least
being Nokia who made a big comeback to La Fira after many years of
absence. On the tablet front, Microsoft’s decision last year to
move away from exclusivity with Wintel materialized in their
showcasing several tablet designs running Windows 8 on ARM from
Nvidia, TI, and Qualcomm (in addition to Intel of course).

Although some battles have been won and lost... this war is just
starting!

Mobile Tapa #2: Show me the mmmmMoney!

This year, the bankers were in town; Visa, MasterCard, and
Western Union all tied up with some of the biggest names of the
telecom industry to enable mobile money.

The UK is turning into a leading hub for mobile near field
communication (NFC) payments, with Visa and Vodafone teaming up on
this front, while in other regions of the world Ericsson will focus
on enabling mobile money transfers through telcos and Western
Union’s stores in Emerging Markets.

Closer to home, Etisalat and MasterCard bagged the Global Mobile
Award for “Best Mobile Money Innovation,” as the Etisalat Commerce
platform makes financial services available for millions of people
in Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. (By the way, this was one
of 3 awards won by Etisalat at the show this year… scroll for
more!).

Mobile Tapa #3: Size doesn't matter… or does
it?

Pushing the boundaries of what can be packed into a cell phone,
Nokia released the 808 Pure View, a 41 Mega Pixel camera phone
(yes… 41 MP, there is NO dot!), while LG stretched (literally) the
limits of the smartphone definition with a 5” screen in a 4:3
aspect ratio.

Singing their own tune, Samsung have expanded the Note range
(which exists in the grey space between a phone and a tablet),
adding the Galaxy Note 10.1," and coupled that with the launch of
the Galaxy Beam projector-phone which can display on a wall images
and videos up to 50” in size.

Meanwhile a more subtle debate was taking place in the
nanosphere, where Intel, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm took the
moral high ground and emphasized the importance of design
efficiency and user experience over number of cores, which prompted
Nvidia, to proudly kick off the week with rebranding their Tegra 3
architecture to “4-plus-1”, in reference to their 5th core!

Mobile Tapa #4: The (Auto)mobile Internet

The Internet of Everything is becoming a reality, following the
emergence in 2011 of wearable devices, mainly in the guise of
watches and wrist bands (iPod Nano, Motorola MOTOACTV, Sony
Smartwatch, Jawbone UP, Nike Fuel, etc.). This year also heralds
the move of the internet inside the automobile: Nvidia announced
that their Tegra processors will be soon available in the Audi A7,
the Lamborghini Aventador, and the Tesla Model S (which will
actually have 2 Tegras in it- one responsible for generating
the 3D graphics needed for the infotainment and navigation systems,
and a second used for the instrument hub, which will also feature
3D graphics providing information about the vehicle).

The most notable news on this front came from Germany that week
where Mercedes Benz announced a pioneering licensing agreement with
Apple to use Siri in their "Drive Kit Plus" system... making a
whole generation's Knight Rider fantasy come true!

Mobile Tapa #5: The Spring

Taking advantage of the media attention, daily protests took
place outside the gates of La Fira on Plaça d'Espanya, as workers
demanded better wages and work conditions. This was the only cloud
in an otherwise spotless blue sky, as this year's congress basked
in the glow of an exceptional Mediterranean sunshine (compared to
the last 2 years) heralding an early spring on the west
Mediterranean.

Adding a hint of Arabia to this spring, Etisalat, in partnership
with Qualcomm, Great Connection and D-Tree, received two Global
Mobile Awards in the ‘Best Mobile Health Innovation’ and ‘mWomen
Best Mobile Product’ categories for their mobile health program in
developing countries, adding this to the 'mobile Money' award they
received in collaboration with MasterCard.

This was all from my side for this year, follow me @wirelessly
on twitter for more!